I am a very impatient person & will usually learn a song very quickly & sing it my own way. I rarely sing the same song in the exact same way twice. I change the tune & phrasing to suit the way I'm singing it at the time. If I like a song I just get completely swept away with it and sing it with wads of expression. That all seemed great until I started to sing with a bunch of other people. Now I find that because I vary the tune I will be singing a different tune to the others, and because I vary the phrasing I am not fitting in with the guitar or the other singing (I get left behind or end up in front). Worst of all, our harmony-girl gets thrown off because she can't tell where my voice is going next & hence I mess up her ad-hoc harmonies. So now I have to apply myself to learning the standard rendition FIRST, and then varying from that a bit more intelligently. SO, I think the advice of Praise & Mbo stands out here. I think, if you want to fit in with other singers (which you might not anyway - in which case do whatever you fancy), then you need to be working from a common source. But it need only be the source, it can go & flow where you like.

Kris